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“Entrepreneurship” and “projects” both represent concepts with somewhat hazy boundaries. Interestingly, they also both represent fields of study in which academics representing those fields have worked very hard so as extend rather than delineate the same. In fact, some parts of the debate on, e.g., entrepreneurship could be criticized for engaging in “conceptual colonization,” insofar as it actively attempts to fit more and more activities under the umbrella term of entrepreneurship and/or projects, with the attendant implicit inference that they are thus fodder and resource for studies of the same. The purpose of this paper is to seek to inquire into this phenomenon.

In and of itself this could be seen as merely a case of academic (over-)branding, but the author will in the following paper argue that this also leads to “epistemological emptying,” i.e., a state where terms such as entrepreneurship and project start becoming less and less meaningful as they become more and more general, and that the strive among researchers to extend their fields can be seen as a form of symbolic violence against the same.

The author argues that the author can find conceptual colonization and epistemological emptying by paying critical attention to the manner in which key contributions in the field(s) consistently and uncritically try to extend the boundaries of said field(s).

By reflection on the manner in which field(s) attempts to make themselves more general may backfire and bring about epistemological emptying, the author might develop a more robust discussion regarding the importance of field boundaries and also more critically note power/knowledge ambitions in the field(s).

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a different and partly new strategy is needed in order to make research on projects relevant and interesting to a wider scientific community, including organisation and management theory.

The aim is accomplished through a mystery‐focused process that identifies what is not explained and continuously confronts empirical data with theoretical explanations in an interactive manner.

Based on a phenomenology‐stimulated meta‐analysis of the field of project research, the paper outlines an alternative view of the field of project research and four streams of research, each of which is represented by its own scope, focus, audience and “taken‐for‐granted” assumptions. The streams are: in search of best practice, in search of legitimacy, in search of inspiration and in search of contribution.

The paper suggests that, in order to make an true impact on management and social science theories in general, projects must be redefined as objects of study rather than the raison d'être. The inherent paradox, and the conclusion of the paper is that, in order to become more relevant for a broader research community, projects must be reduced to an empirical illustration, a case among others.

The paper provides a meta‐analysis of the project management research field and offers new insights into challenges that need to be addressed in order to make project management research relevant for a wider management research community.

To achieve the shift towards sustainable construction the industry must change the project delivery methods used. Therefore, this paper reports on a high-performance building project that implemented a collaborative project delivery method through the examination of the following research questions: RQ1: What were the most important contractual, cultural and organisational elements studied in the collaborative project delivery method? RQ2: What were the effects of the studied elements?

A longitudinal case study approach was adopted. As for means of data collection, a document review, semi-structured interviews, and observations was conducted. A total of 20 observations (App. 80 h, 175 pages of notes) and 12 interviews (App. 20 h, 100 pages of notes) with project participants was conducted.

The analysis indicates that if attention is paid to task, team and individual needs through contractual, cultural and organisational elements, this will affect the development of an integrated team.

We demonstrate that the effects of the elements are shown through their achievement in creating and sustaining an integrated team of inter-organisational participants working in a collaborative environment.

It provides a better understanding of how a collaborative project delivery method for the design phase emphasises team integration. We demonstrate that while the principal sets the contractual boundaries by deciding the contractual elements, the agent should be intentional in the selection and use of organizational and cultural elements.

The paper suggests that it is not enough to just have contractual elements implemented. Consequently, this insight suggests that managers should be attentive to the untapped potential that lies within organisational and cultural elements.

The purpose of this editorial is to reflect on the growing interest of situated project research.

The editorial is conceptual and relies on published work and the articles included in the special issue.

With this special issue it is found that practice‐based studies, also called Projects‐as‐Practice studies, interested in the everyday activities of project practitioners, are multi‐faceted and rich. What may also be seen is that practice‐based studies are not yet a coherent area. However, it is more important that practice‐based studies allow researchers to understand the organization less as an entity and more as a socially‐accomplished task.

Several implications for research are offered, including the need for studies that emphasize the small details of organizing, and that practice‐based studies are not restricted to a certain methodology but depend on what a particular paper tries to accomplish.

With an ever‐growing stream of research focusing on projects the guest editors argue that it is about time to look into the details of organizing. This could be accomplished through a number of ways but in this special issue it is proposed that approaching traditional areas with a conscious naivety when asking the questions may do it. For the practitioner, the special issue offers important insights into how things are done in practice, which may be used as a mirror or reflection upon their own practice.

This editorial and special issue offer insights for any academic interested in understanding projects differently.

The purpose of this paper is to establish an understanding of what projectification means, how projectification is driven forward, as well as what the consequences of projectification are in an European Union (EU) context, and in the public sector in general.

The research methods consist of a literature review as well as a meta-analysis of key EU policy documents related to the functioning of regional development and projects. The paper shows that structural developments brought forth by a projectification in a public sector context have significant consequences.

Without contextually sensitive interlinking mechanisms between temporary and permanent structures projects risk losing their flexible and innovative qualities, and may fragment the ability of permanent organisations for maintaining coordination and continuity. The findings suggests that the proximity of permanent organisations, the discretion of entrepreneurship, the political priority of the task, the inclusion of competencies and interests, and the quality of transfer mechanisms are essential variables in explaining the outcome of temporary organisations in a politico-administrative context.

The paper contributes to the literature on projects in a public sector context and suggests that comparative research on the drivers and consequences of public sector projectification in supranational as well as national contexts is needed.

The increasing requirements for applied project management skills and methods as criteria for project selection in the public sector highlight the importance of a broader theoretical and practical understanding of projectification.

The paper adds a new dimension to the projectification debate by presenting a descriptive and conceptual discussion about the consequences of public sector projectification in an EU context. It complements an existing theory of the temporary organisation and takes the first steps towards a theory applicable to projectification in a public context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents and implications of aligning the organizational values embedded in a systems development approach (e.g. agile) with the organizational values of project team members.

A qualitative case study approach is used to examine systems development project teams at three organizations, each using a development approach that incorporates different organizational value dimensions. Interviews were conducted with developers, systems analysts, and managers regarding their systems development experiences. A structured coding of the interview transcripts was then completed to enable analysis of value dimensions.

By comparing the dominant values between the project teams and their development approach, varying degrees of alignment were identified. Where alignment is high, perceptions of the systems development process are associated with satisfaction and enthusiasm; where alignment is low, perceptions focus on frustration and discontent.

Based on the study's findings, four propositions pertaining to the antecedents and implications of IS values alignment are outlined for examination in future research.

The findings from this study can aid managers who are considering the use of a new systems development approach or evaluating the effectiveness of their current approach. By determining the degree of information systems (IS) values alignment, organizations may be able to customize their development approach to be more consistent with the team's values, in order to minimize negative development process perceptions and increase project performance.

This research extends past studies of organizational values and alignment by introducing the concept of IS values alignment.

Kristian Kreiner is one of the co‐authors of Projektledning i en ofulständig värld. The purpose of this paper (commentary) is to reiterate and update a few of the fundamental tenets on which the original text was based. The purpose is also to argue that the need to challenge conventional project management thinking is still pressing today.

This commentary highlights two ideas and makes one plea for future research.

Project managers must bridge two notions of a project: one focussing on some desired future state which can guide current, contingent action, and the other one focussing on the conscious design and planning of social action to enable efficient, collaborative achievements. In practice, project managers face a dilemma in having to encourage both behavioural flexibility (adaptability) and behavioural rigidity (discipline). Secondly, project managers face conditions of complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Conventionally, such conditions are made to signal poor project management, but they are often managerial premises rather than problematic outcomes.

We need to theorize project management under imperfect, but realistic circumstances in which complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity are central. One way to start may be to reject the notion that good project management is equivalent to good planning of processes and responsibilities. Rather, we should search for intelligent ways of using plans which necessarily will be rendered inadequate and imperfect by change and turbulence.

The plea delivered in the paper is to change our academic focus from devising optimal ways of planning and organizing projects to a search for more intelligent ways of exploiting plans and organizational forms that are, by definition, inadequate and imperfect.

Projects are an inherent part of implementing strategies. Still, the challenge is to connect a long-term strategy for larger ecosystem development to the individual projects being undertaken. The purpose of this paper is to test the ability of seven project management office (PMO) roles to achieve strategic planning in large society development public organisations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The questionnaire survey that was employed for data collected from 450 project members in 19 project-based public organisations having PMO unit had a response rate of 60 per cent. The received data analysed quantitatively by using multiple regression.

The survey data revealed that PMO enhanced the achievement of the strategic plan for better development of the business ecosystem. The analysis outputs, as expected, have indicated that 95 per cent of the targeted organisations established their own PMO for developing business ecosystem.

Despite there are PMOs hosted by private organisations, the study is limited to the PMO within the context of the government and semi-government organisations in the UAE.

These findings further utilised in developing the conceptual PMO model that would be flexible to be applied to similar project management methodology in various business settings, as well as pave the way for further scholarly investigations.

This work is both exploratory and causal study, which concentrates on investigating the effectiveness of seven proposed PMO roles (as independent variables) in carrying out the strategic plan (as the dependent variable) of the public-sector organisations in the UAE for the development of business ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze important parts of the contemporary development of project research and to outline plausible and desirable directions for the future.

This is accomplished through a review of the “Scandinavian School of Project Management” and “Rethinking Project Management,” which is complemented with a set of questions distributed to 27 active researchers within the project research field from around the world.

Through the analysis the authors show how the two streams have more similarities than differences, despite the fact that they have been initiated in very different contexty 8ts and ways. The authors could also conclude that the “Scandinavian School” appears stronger on the international scene than in the Nordic countries, and that general perception of what the “school” stands for has changed and been blurred with time. Based on the analysis the authors also proposed the need for a broad, more coherent research effort in terms of a multi-perspective research program on projects and temporary organizations. The essence of this would be: an action research profile to improve practice and foresee the future; a combined research focus on institutional change and project practice to ensure both theoretical and empirical progress; and a strong global perspective to further enrich both theory and practice.

This research has obvious limitations in terms of empirical scope and response selection. The questionnaire results should therefore be interpreted with care.

The value of this research lies in its reflective nature and the proposed trajectory of the project research domain.

Traditional construction project practice has been based on rigid and impermeable boundaries that have made communication, cooperation and integration a major challenge. However, new collaborative approaches have been developed. This paper aims at adding to knowledge on projects‐as‐practice by interpreting findings from a case study on a contemporary collaborative construction project. The purpose of this paper is to provide knowledge about organizational development in the project‐based construction industry by identifying boundary actions in contemporary collaborative construction practices.

The paper is based on an exploratory longitudinal case study approach covering both early design phase and the following production phase, including interviews, participant observation at formal meetings and informal gatherings and internal and external documents. Thus, the methodology used is triangulation and the analysis has followed an interpretative process.

The paper provides empirical insights into three examples of boundary actions of a collaborative construction project: stakeholder boundary action, professional boundary action and geographical boundary action. From a project‐as‐practice perspective, these boundary actions turn out to be interesting renewal initiatives, providing increased understanding of where and how renewal can take place.

The findings are based on a single case study and more research on this area is needed. However, the paper shows examples of boundary actions in a contemporary project and thus adds to the knowledge on contemporary projects‐as‐practice.

The paper provides implications for construction project managers on examples of renewal arenas.

The paper is exploratory and the findings are important for much needed development and renewal of the construction industry.